Toy bead loom



June 17, 1952 F. WEHRLI 2,601,222

TOY BEAD LOOM Filed June 25-, 1951 Tifinl;

I J5 J9 INVENTOR 1 FREDERICK WEHRLI 8 'Y BY ATT NEY Patented June 17,1952 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE TOY BEAD LOQM Frederick Wehrli, NewYork, N. Y.

Application June 25, 1951, Serial No. 233,473

6 Claims. 1

This invention relates to a toy loom for making beaded articles such asbeaded belts, bands. necklaces and the like.

It is an object of my invention to provide a toy bead loom which issturdy, rigid, simple in construction, and which can be easily adjustedand operated. The frame of theloom is formed of a single wire having itsends joined together to form a continuous loop. The loop issubstantially rectangular in shape, the central portion of the loopforming a base and the two ends of the loop being bent upwardly. Theupwardly bent ends are provided with thread spacing members. At amidpoint of the base portion, a loop bend is formed in the wire at eachside of the base. The loop bends extend upwardly for supporting an axletherebetween. A pair of rollers are mounted on the axle with theiradjacent ends abutting each other. The threads extend from a threadholding member on one of the rolls over the two thread spacing membersand are then anchored or fastened to a member on the other roll. Byturning. the rolls the threads can be made taut, or they can be fed overthe thread spacing members.

The invention will be more readily understood from the followingdescription and the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a side view of one embodiment of my invention,

Fig. 2 shows a top view of the bead loom, and

Figs. 3 and 4 are sectional views of details.

Reference is made to Figs. 1 and 2 illustrating one embodiment of myinvention. The loom includes a wire frame I formed of a wire ofsufficient thickness to provide the requisite rigidity for the loom. Theends of the wire I are joined together, as by welding, to form acontinuous loop substantially rectangular in shape. The rectangular loopis bent upwardly at the points 2 and 3 to provide a base portion 4 and apair of upwardly extending ends 5 and B which have a certain amount ofresiliency which helps to maintain the threads 2| taut. The base portionof the loop consists primarily of two sides I and 8 joined together bythe upwardly extending nds 5 and 6. The base portion 4 is made rigid ina manner to be explained later. On the horizontal arms 9 and Ill of theends 5 and 6 there are provided a series of grooves for holding thethreads 2| properly spaced. The thread spacing grooves may be providedby springs II and I2 mounted on the horizontal arms 9 and iii. Thesprings H and I2 are placed on the wire I before the ends of wire I arejoined together, and the springs are sufiiciently flexible to permitthem to be moved along wire I into their proper positions.

The base portion 4 of the wire frame is provided with means forsupporting a pair of rolls l3 and I4. Rolls l3 and I4 have threadfastening or anchoring devices 55 and it, respectively. Rolls i3 and I4may be made of wood or any other suitable material, and the threadfastening devices l5 and 5 may benails or screws. Rolls I3 and I4preferably are unequal in length. The roll |3 may be made approximatelytwo to four times as long as roll [4. The. roll I3 is thus made wideenough to permit a wide beaded band to be rolled up thereon. The rollsl3 and I4 are supported above the base portion 4 on an axle H, which maybe a long machine screw. The axle I1 is mounted in a pair of loop bendsformed in the sides 1 and 8 of the base portion 4. A wing nut 20 isprovided for clamping rolls l3 and I4 together so that rotation of oneroll will cause the other to rotate. Further tightening of the wing nut20 will clamp the rolls l3 and hi against the loop ends l8 and I9tightly enough to prevent rotation of the rolls. The rolls I3 and 4 andthe axle I! maintain the spacing between sides I and 8 and thus renderthe base of the loom rigid.

The general mode of operation of toy bead looms of the type hereindisclosed is well known in the art. A number of threads are fastened atone end to the fastening device IE on roll I3. The threads are then fedthrough adjacent grooves of the spring or spacing member l2, and thenthrough adjacent grooves of the other spacing member After being pulledtight the threads are anchored or fastened to the fastening device IE onthe roll l4. After the loom has been properly threaded the threads 2|can be made taut by turning rolls l3 and I4 together, or by turning rolli 4 with respect to roll l3. The wing nut 20 is then tightened toprevent further rotation of rolls l3 and I4. If it is desired to feedthe threads 2| through the grooved members [I and I2, the winged nut isloosened sufficiently to permit rolls l3 and M to rotate together tothereby unroll the threads from roll M and simultaneously roll up thethreads or beaded band on roll I3. The threads 2| form the warp of thebeaded article. The beads are threaded or woven on to warp threads 2| bya woof thread 22. One end of the woof thread is tied to one of the warpthreads as at a point 24. The woof thread 22 is fastened to a needle 23and beads 25 are then placed on thread 22. The number of beads placed onthe woof thread 22 at one time may equal the number of spaces betweenthreads 2|. Thread 22 is placed across threads 2| so that one bead liesin each space between threads 2|. The woof thread 22 may then be loopedaround the last of the threads 2|, and then again passed through theholes of the beads by means of the needle 23. This mode of operation isgiven merely as one illustration, it being evident that the beads may bewoven or threaded in other manners.

It will be evident that I have provided a toy bead loom which is simpleand durable in construction and in which the base of the frame is givenadditional rigidity by the rolls placed centrally thereof. The operationof the bead loom has been simplified by the reduction of the number ofcomponent elements and by arranging the rolls so that they can be turnedtogether, and

released for rotation or fastened against rotation by a singleadjustment. It will be evident to those skilled in the art that a numberof modifications and variations of the single embodiment of my inventiondisclosed herein may be made without departing from the scope of myinvention as defined in the following claims:

I claim:

1. A toy loom comprising a frame having a substantially rectangular baseand bent-up ends, a member having a series of grooves mounted on eachbent-up end of the frame, an axle, a pair of rolls mounted adjacent eachother on said axle, and a pair of members extending upwardly fromopposite sides of said base for supporting 3. A toy bead loom as definedin claim 2, in which each of the axle-supporting members consists of aloop formed in said wire at an intermediate point of said base.

4. A toy bead loom as defined in claim 2, including means mounted onsaid axle for holding the adjacent ends of said rolls in engagement forcausing rotation of one roll to rotate the other roll and for clampingsaid rolls on said axle to prevent rotation.

5. A toy bead loom as defined in claim 2, in which one of said rolls isappreciably longer than the other roll.

6. A toy bead loom comprising a wire frame consisting of a single wirehaving its ends joined to form a substantially rectangular continuousloop, the ends of the loop being upwardly bent from a base portion ofthe loop, a series of grooves extending across each of said upwardlybent ends, a pair of upwardly extending loop bends in said wire atoppositely disposed points of said base portion, an axle extendingthrough said loop bends, a pair of rolls of unequal length mounted onsaid axle, and means mounted on said axle for holding the adjacent endsof said rolls in engagement for causing rotation of one roll to rotatethe other roll and for clamping said rolls to prevent rotation thereof.

FREDERICK 'WEHRLI.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,508,818 Poida Sept. 16, 19241,995,384 Fletcher Mar. 26, 1935 2,043,082 Wallach June 2, 19362,504,940 Wallach Apr. 18, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date135,152 Great Britain Nov. 20, 1919 428,995 Germany Mar. 2, 1927

